'Billy Elliot' in Hungary: Orbán and Tolerance

by Georgina Davis

The Hungarian State Opera House has cancelled 15 performances of the musical Billy Elliot after ticket sales went down following a negative article published in the pro-government newspaper Magyar Idők. The article argued that ‘such penetrating propaganda’ promotes a ‘deviant way of life’ to which ‘small children of eight to ten years’ are far too sensitive. I suppose this is not surprising given the views of the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, who when asked about LGBT rights in his country replied: 'Hungary is a tolerant nation. Tolerance, however, does not mean that we would apply the same rules for people whose lifestyle is different from our own. We differentiate between them and us."

This mere ‘tolerance’ is a clear example of one of the many ways in which the right-wing government led by Orbán is chipping away at the foundations of Hungarian democracy, limiting individual rights and even promoting their illiberal ways of thinking within individual cultural institutions. One would expect these institutions to support the individual rights of people whose views are otherwise not supported or welcomed within the country’s policies but, instead, they are merely ‘tolerated’. Orbán goes on to say: ‘an important foundation for the civilian side is that homosexuality is not punished either… but it is not a national goal to propagate homosexuality in a situation where the population is decreasing / ageing, and our country is threatened by foreign invasion.’

The prime minister explains that he is ‘grateful’ to the Hungarian homosexual community for not exhibiting the ‘provocative’ behaviour that ‘numerous European nations are struggling with’. So as long as homosexual identity is not promoted, Orbán is happy to ‘tolerate’, but then I wonder, what steps over his line of toleration?  The fact that a production of Billy Elliot provoked such a vicious homophobic reaction is truly alarming, especially given that the only gay character from the original script was not even included in the Hungarian production. This is one of the many examples of the way in which, as Owen Jones, Guardian columnist, states, ‘Hungary is making a mockery of the EU’s stated commitment to democracy’. With extended control of the press, criminalisation of refugees and migrants, it is time that the British government stood with the EU countries that are working to censor this behaviour and work towards a progressive democracy.

It is embarrassing that Tory MEPs have failed to do so, remaining one of the few groups in mainstream European politics who vote against these pressures.